Amritsar, June 20
An agitated mob today torched a private bus belonging to a transport company owned by the family of former Punjab Vibhan Sabha speaker Nirmal Singh Kahlon, following an accident in which two youths were injured near Jethuwal village on Amritsar-Pathankot road.

Sandeep Singh (25) and Kanwarpal Singh (24), both residents of Luddhar village, sustained minor injuries when their motorcycle was hit by the bus. They were rushed to Guru Nanak Dev Hospital for treatment where their condition is stable.

Eyewitnesses said the incident took place as the bus was coming from the wrong side of the Amritsar-Pathankot highway where the construction of four-lane road was underway.

The news of the accident and rumours of death of two youths spread like wildfire and people started gathering at the spot. A police team from Kathunangal police station also reached the spot. The enraged mob went on a rampage and tried to damage the bus. The police used mild force to disperse the crowd. However, a few minutes later, the mob gathered again and damaged the bus and set it on fire.

Residents pointed out that police team of police station concerned arrived late at the spot and it became very difficult for a small police party to control the mob.

They alleged that the incident took place as another bus of same transport company tried to overtake the other. They alleged that the many road mishaps were being reported on this route, but no steps have been taken by the police as well as the company responsible for the construction of the road.

Pritpal Singh Virk, SSP, Amritsar rural police district, said the driver of the bus has been arrested for negligence which led to the accident. He said a case has been registered in this connection.

Amritsar, June 20
This gang had it all. An Italy-based NRI, a local manager of Turkmenistan Airlines and Jalandhar-based policeman were part of the gang of fake travel agents that was busted by the city police today.

The police has arrested seven members of the gang, identified as Dinesh Kureel, manager, Turkmenistan Airlines; Anil Kumar of Sarojni Nagar, New Delhi; Kulbir Singh, a resident of Muchhal village and a head constable posted at Jalandhar; Tejinder Singh of Karol Bagh, Jalandhar; Gagan Joshi of Jalandhar; Kuldeep Sharma of Jalandhar; and Manwinder Singh, alias Rozy, of Tilak Nagar, New Delhi.

The accused had sent an Afghan family, including three children, who has been taking shelter in India for the past 22 years, to Italy on fake documents. The family was extradited yesterday. The couple has also been arrested in this connection and their children being minors would be handed over to their relatives.

A case under Sections 420, 468, 471 and 120-B of the IPC and Sections 3, 4 and 12 of the Indian Passport Act has been registered against them at Civil Lines police station here. Barring the Italy-based NRI Vishal Saini, all others have been arrested in the case.

Police Commissioner RP Mittal said Afghan national Pritam Singh had approached Manwinder Singh about one and half years back and gave him Rs 14 lakh for sending him abroad. Manwinder contacted Vishal Saini, originally hailing from Hoshiarpur and now residing in Italy.

Vishal took Manwinder to Tejinder Singh, who ran an internet cafe and a shop in Jalandhar and was an expert in preparing fake documents necessary for the passport. He gave Rs 2.50 lakh to Tejinder who further contacted Kulbir Singh, a head constable posted in Division Number 6 police station. Kulbir Singh arranged a fake residential address for the Afghan family. The address was of a vacant plot. He asked them to apply for the passport and when the address and document came to police station Kulbir got verified the residential address and documents and sent these back to the regional passport office. He handed over the passports to Manwinder and Tejinder and took Rs 45,000 per passport from them.

Mittal said they then met Kuldeep Sharma who arranged the visa. He further contacted Dinesh for arranging the tickets. Dinesh asked them to approach his friend Gagan Joshi, a Jalandhar-travel agent, who demanded Rs 1.90 lakh from them. Dinesh demanded more money from Kuldeep who gave it in his office at Ranjit Avenue. Kuldeep then met Anil Kumar who worked as a courier for taking persons to the designated destination and hand them over to their further contacts, revealed the Police Commissioner. The Afghan family boarded the flight on June 18. But they extradited from Doha where the plane was halted.

The police has recovered Rs 2 lakh cash from Dinesh Kureel. He said further investigations were under on to find out the role of the authorities in the Regional Passport Office.

Amritsar, June 20
Dejected with Finance Minister Parminder Singh Dhindsa’s first annual budget, city-based industrialists, traders and economists say the budget does not offer enough stimuli to expedite the pace of progress of the holy city.

Industrialist Raman Gupta said the industry was not happy with the budget as it did not have any package or a specific plan to revive the industry.

The city industry was expecting some stimulus and also relief in accordance to the relaxation recently granted to the Goindwal industrial complex to catapult it on the path of progress.

He said the industrialists need to convey to the government that the border city needs more liquidity for infrastructure, R&D, and subsidy to enable the industry to compete on a global level. More funds for maintenance of industrial infrastructure is necessary for industrial growth, Gupta added.

Another businessman PL Seth said the government must grant 10 per cent of the Rs 5,100 crore power subsidy meant for farmers and SC families for 2012-13 fiscal to the industries at border districts. He said the budget does not have anything to rejuvenate the industry of the border city.

Dr Varinder Bhatia, former member, District Planning Board, said “No effort has been made in the budget to make up for the revenue deficit. Besides, the budget is silent on infrastructure development. Though no taxes have been levied in the budget to please the common man, it indicates that the government has no risk planning to generate resources. There is no provision or proposal in the budget as how to address the mounting debt of Rs 87,518 crore. The budget proposals are pleasing, but lack the financial logic. The dark side of the budget remains that the state’s total revenue is consumed only in non plan expenditure like salaries, subsidies and debt services. It needs a careful monitoring. Against the total revenue of Rs 38,043 crore, including Rs 8,926 crore central grants and share from central taxes, the state spends Rs 41,166 crore on salary, pension and retirement benefits, interest payment on loans and power subsidy. This means the state cannot even meet its committed expenditure leave apart investing in infrastructure or repaying the mounting debts.”

Indian Economic Association former president RS Bawa appreciated the move of offering free tablets to 1.5 lakh students and anticipated that it would abridge the information gap and spread e-learning among students from economically weaker sections. Upgrade of ITIs is a good idea.”

Efforts to plug the leakage in tax collection is a move in a right direction, but stress should be directed towards proper utilisation of allocated funds for the intended objective, he said and added that the coalition government must ensure its contribution for all central schemes so that no central grant goes unutilised.

Bawa, who has a long experience of teaching economics at university level, said the minister has not lived up to the expectation. Though promotion of border trade with Pakistan and related infrastructure has been mentioned, the holy city required much more in terms of infrastructure. Contribution of both state and central governments are needed in this direction.

Amritsar, June 20
Khanna Paper Mill, which is one of the largest paper mills in the country, is on the way to recovery after a devastating fire that broke out in its stockyard last week, leading to the losses to the tune of crores.

Talking to The Tribune, Khanna Paper Mill Director Suneet Kochhar said the soft trials have already begun at the plant and it is likely to go functional next week. He, however, added that it will still take a month for the mill to be completely back on track. “We receive our raw material from the US and Europe and it takes around 45 days for it to arrive after we place an order. However, we are trying to tap our Indian resources for the supply of raw material.” He pegged the losses in the massive fire at Rs 150 crore, all on account of burning of 75,000 to 85,000 MT waste paper and other cardboard material. He said there was no loss of machinery or any other part of the mill.

Kochhar said the work of vacating the stockyard of gutted raw material is on at war footing. “We have already vacated half of it.” He said the administration is supervising the job. He clarified that they are neither dumping the burnt waste material nor throwing it away anywhere. “We will in fact be utilising it to produce B-grade or C-grade finished good, which can be put to some use at least,” he added.

On the production losses the mill has suffered, Kochhar said the mill used to produce 1,000 tonnes of paper daily, but not a single tonne of paper has been produced for the last one week due to the fire tragedy. Keeping in view the current scenario, it will take a month from today for the mill to be functional to its full capacity, he said. The mill has a monthly turnover of Rs 185 crore. He said the insurance firm officials are surveying the mill premises to assess the losses caused.

A massive fire had broken out in the mill's 10-acre open stockyard on June 12, which was followed by a major firefighting operation involving over 50 fire tenders, 150 firemen and 600 policemen. The fire could be finally extinguished after around four days of firefighting operation.

Amritsar, June 20
The Amritsar rural police has nabbed BJP leader Gurdas Mal Bhandari and his chemist son Vikram Bhandari on charges of selling habit-forming drugs.

The police seized 6,000 tablets and 310 capsules of intoxicant drugs from their possession. A case under Sections 22, 61 and 85 of the NDPS Act has been registered against them.

Gurdas Mal Bhandari, former BJP district vice-president, used to run a general store in Chawinda Devi village while his son has a medical store.

As the health department tightened the noose around the illegal medical stores and chemist shops indulging in the sale of habit-forming drugs, Vikram used to hide these medicines in the general store of his father.

Pritpaul Singh Virk, district police chief, said the accused were arrested following a tip off. Vikram was caught when he was bringing the intoxicant medicines from the shop of his father in order to sell them to the customer.

“As his father was an influential person, he used to hide the medicines in the general store. He thought that the police could never suspect his father. But the anti- narcotics cell received a tip-off about his activities,” said the SSP.

Vikram used to run Das Medical Store in Chawinda Devi. A team of narcotic cell headed by Sanjiv Kumar, in charge of the cell, raided the complex and seized the medicines. Further investigations were under on.

Ward 19
Name: Damandeep Singh
Party: BJP

There is an immediate need to install adequate number of tubewells to provide continuous supply of potable water. Though there are five tubewells to supply potable water to houses in this ward and neighbouring wards, at least 5 more are required keeping in the view of the increased population in the ward. My priority is to ensure installation of these tubewells within the next year. Laying of new roads and repair of streets in Pawan Nagar and covering the entire area under sewerage is my priority

Ward 21
Name: Suresh Mahajan
Party: BJP

The rise in population has made it necessary to proportionally increase the number of tubewells to ensure supply of potable water to each houses in the ward. Installation of at least three more tubewells have been proposed and will be operational soon. Problem of chocked sewerage has been noticed in many areas and these were promptly repaired. I will also look for a permanent solution. Defunct streetlights will be replaced

Ward 23
Name: Bindu Bala
Party: BJP

Water supply, sewerage and sanitation are the major priorities in my ward. I will ensure there is a proper supply of potable water, sanitation facilities and streetlights in my ward. With a view to know the problems of the ward, I will remain in touch with the people of my area. Recently, a tubewell outside Gali Subedara developed a snag. I will work towards getting adequate funds to install a new tubewell

Amritsar, June 20
The 10-day Sirjana Gurmat summer camp organised by the Akaal Purkh Ki Fauj (APKF) with the help of Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) concluded today.

About 2,000 children took part in the summer camps held at 50 different places, including in gurdwaras at Chheharta, Pipli Sahib, Tutt Sahib, Attari, Ajit Nagar and Pratap Nagar.

Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Gubachan Singh took part in the concluding ceremony and made the children aware regarding Gurmat and Sikh history. He said along with modern education it was necessary for the youth to be aware about the history of Sikh Gurus and Gurmat.

APKF Director Jaswinder Singh Advocate said the objective of these camps was to inform the new generation about their rich cultural and religious history. “Participating children will learn voluntary service, Gurmat, Amrit Vela, Gurbani and other vital subjects related to Sikh religion,” he said.

He said 500 students have been selected and would be sent to take part in a five-day camp at Sri Anandpur Sahib starting from June 23.

Amritsar, June 20
A three-week refresher course in education was today inaugurated by Prof Ajaib Singh Brar, Vice-Chancellor of Guru Nanak Dev University, in the Academic Staff College of the University.

Prof Brar emphasised the importance of the refresher courses for teachers. He said colleges have to play an important role as these colleges prepare the teachers for schools.

He said teachers should make optimum use of the modern technology in the classrooms.

He said the university would establish a Department of Education on its campus soon.

Earlier, course coordinator Dr Amit Kauts, Principal, MGN College of Education, informed the participants about the thrust area of the course. He further said during this course, eminent personalities in the field of education would be invited to deliver lectures.

Amritsar, June 20
Civil Surgeon Dr HS Ghai today urged traders dealing in food products to get themselves registered with the health department by July 31 as required in the Food Standard and Safety Act and obtain licence to run their business.

He was holding a meeting with the food suppliers and representatives of various associations of the food industry.

Dr Ashwani Sondhi, District Health and Family Welfare Officer, said all the food establishments including hotels, bakeries and vendors are required to get registration under the Act.

The traders promised to extend their full cooperation in this connection.

Amritsar, June 20
Following media reports regarding unstable mental state of Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar, who is on a death row, the SGPC has renewed its demand for his release.

SGPC chief Avtar Singh Makkar said they have already been making efforts for his release and even extended legal aid to his family while filing a petition for the same last year. “Now, it has also been medically proved that he is not mentally fit. Under these circumstances, he should be allowed to walk free.” He said the SGPC will again send a memorandum to the Union Government, seeking his release.

Radical Sikh outfit Dal Khalsa leader Kanwar Pal Singh too sought immediate release of Bhullar on humanitarian grounds. “Bhullar has already served 18 years in prison and has undergone mental agony.” He accused the government of resorting to double standards. On one hand, New Delhi was seeking the release of Sarabjit Singh from Pakistan jail, on the other back home it was not letting off those who were convicted on split judgement. He urged Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal to pass a resolution in the ongoing Assembly session for the release of Bhullar, as PPCC chief Captain Amarinder Singh has already aired his opposition to death penalty in principle.

The SGPC had stepped up efforts to save Bhullar after President Pratibha Patil had rejected his mercy petition on May 26 last year. It had also formed a five-member committee to pursue the matter legally. Bhullar is facing gallows in a 1993 bomb attack in which nine persons were killed and the then Youth Congress leader Maninderjit Singh Bitta injured. He was sentenced to death in 2001.